Research Charts the Impact of Sleep Loss on Your Face

We all know that beauty sleep is real — a good night’s sleep can indeed reduce bags under your eyes and make your skin more elastic.  New research is now charting the specifics of what sleep deprivation can do to your looks.

The research, conducted by Stockholm University in Sweden and published in the journal Sleep , found that a bad night’s sleep affects our facial features.

The study says the faces of sleep deprived individuals were perceived as having more hanging eyelids, redder eyes, more swollen eyes, darker circles under the eyes, paler skin, more wrinkles/fine lines and more droopy corners of the mouth.

The experimental laboratory study involved 40 observers rating 20 facial photographs with respect to fatigue, facial cues and sadness.  The stimulus material consisted of 10 individuals photographed at 2.30pm after normal sleep and after 31 hours of sleep deprivation following a night with only five hours of sleep.

The results show that sleep deprivation affects features relating to the eyes, mouth, and skin, and that these features function as cues of sleep loss to other people.

Source: News.com.au